I recently came across several Cook Island Pines in Oropesa del Mar (Spain) located along the beech. For some years I had been wanting to photograph the pollen cones of this tree species but the closest that I had come was to one tree with the pollen cones about 20 meters high at the top of the tree. This time I was lucky to have the pollen cones within my reach close to the ground (images above and below). One curious thing about these cones is that they grow at the terminal ends of of the long whorled leaves.

The image below is of the Cook pines seed cones which are about the size of softballs. One curious thing about these cones is that the seeds are incorporated into the scales. Each scale that falls to the ground contains a winged seed (see bottom image).

About this blog

Exploring the World´s Tree Species is a blog focused on the tree species of the world and their importance to our everyday lives. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 unique tree species in the world. Most of us however can only name a handful of trees, which is understandable given that in any given area there are normally only a few dozen tree species prevalent. In this blog however my aim is to reveal interesting facts and images of tree species from all over the world. Given that I live in Spain and only travel occasionally to the United States and a few other countries the bulk of the trees blogged about will be from these places. I hope that by browsing through this blog you will come to enjoy the trees as much as I do.